May 24 - 28, 1999

Tuesday, May 25, 1999

Playing Jeopardy

The signs are everywhere: the incessant construction din and the equally
endless media hype proclaim that San Francisco is on the move. With the
throttle set at Full Speed Ahead, the city is steaming straight into Tomorrowland,
where the magical Metreon and the magnificent Zeum happily share space with
waterfront parks and sparkling downtown plazas. As the artist depicting
Mission Bay made clear, this is a place forever bathed in Crayola-yellow
sunshine.

The physical foundations for this new metropolis are just now being poured,
but its airy towers have been floating overhead for some time. Late additions
alter the conceptualized skyline very little, for each creatively financed
project seems to use a common central boilerplate in presenting its anticipated
effects to the public. Different architect; different function; same picture.
There's a whole lot of mythmaking going on.

It's not a bad myth. One of the most recent vehicles to cross my desk
is a video put out by the Bay Area Council/Bay Area Economic Forum touting
its proposed high-speed ferries. Designed to amass a fleet over the next
10--20 years that will transport more than 20 million
people annually to about 40 "leading-edge" terminals, the water
transit system will, the video announces, relieve traffic congestion, safeguard
the environment, foster economic vitality, generate hundreds of jobs and
improve the quality of daily life for the diverse population that inhabits
the Bay Area. What diversity this video presents. A Caucasian businesswoman
works en route, with a laptop and a latte on the window-side table in front
of her. An African-American businessman grabs his suitcases and makes his
way to the airport by hydrofoil. A Caucasian father and an Asian mother
take their three children on a weekend outing. A young, well-scrubbed, fair-haired
man and woman in baseball caps stand at the bow and watch the scenery go
by. An older Caucasian couple attends the opera and returns home on a romantic
cruise across the bay. They're all part of a "world-class" system
that allows them to avoid present-day traffic and mobility "challenges."

Back on dry land, Sunday's Chronicle ran a long editorial describing
the merits of Walter Shorenstein's plan for the Presidio, a mixed-use complex
of apartments and profit-making offices, showcasing the CNET Internet news
service. The proposed structures are low-slung exemplars of environmental
friendliness and good neighborliness. In accord with the principles of sustainability,
they provide for recycled wastewater and building materials. In contrast
to the job-generating ferry system, this plan boasts that it requires relatively
few employees --- only about 1,500, compared to the
competing plan of George Lucas which needs 2,500 ---
to minimize strains on housing and transportation.

And Ken Garcia reveled on Saturday in the glories of the new China Basin
ballpark. Privately financed to the tune of $319 million, PacBell will be
a model of engineering brilliance. "One of the best baseball parks
ever constructed," crowed the ecstatic Garcia. "No wind."
Inside, the layout will be "intimate." Outside, the stadium is
already "turning the South Beach area into an economic gold mine, with
skyrocketing real estate prices and a burgeoning nighttime scene."

A revived ferry system. An attractive parkland setting for high-tech
businesses and residences. A downtown baseball stadium. They arrive wrapped
in an aura of environmental responsibility, economic stimulation, and technological
transcendence. They project an irresistible energy, a power to sweep away
old, outmoded ways of life and replace them with new, better ones. How can
we fault them?

But we can.

Take a closer look at the "bold new visions" we are being asked
to accept. Their "diverse" rainbow coalition of genders and ethnicities
becomes monochromatic when viewed through economic glasses. Generate jobs?
Once the construction is finished, these projects will be inhabited largely
by well-paid office workers and poorly paid service staff, interspersed
with insecurely employed temps. Tread lightly on the earth? The environment
would be better off without friends like these ---
ferry terminals that converge existing land-based transportation into new
knots of congestion; a park area that increases street traffic and reduces
recreational space; a ballpark without a traffic plan.

These are not public service organizations out to save the city. They
are businesses, very big businesses, with their eyes firmly fixed on a big
financial prize. The Bay Area Council promoting the ferries is a forum for
local CEOs and government leaders. The company behind the Presidio Village
is the city's biggest downtown landlord. Financing for the new ballpark
comes from at least ten corporate sponsors who have contributed millions
of dollars apiece in exchange for "signage" ---
advertising space that will presumably earn them many millions more.

It's no sin to run a successful business. But a business is deceitful
when it pretends it's a philanthropy. And members of the public are naive
when they forget that profits motivate businesses, when they unquestioningly
swallow the dreams that businesses dish up.

On August 4, 1997, the San Francisco Business Times noted a generally
overlooked anomaly in the promotion of the Giants' new ballpark. The referendum
campaign had proudly paraded a banner proclaiming, "No Public Funds."
But the city was indeed preparing to lay out funds ---
for a new pavement on Seventh Street, new sewer and power hookups, a new
ferry terminal and a variety of other peripheral amenities. "Of course
we are spending public money for the Giants' stadium," the mayor acknowledged
in a speech before a group of business executives. "The voters didn't
ask us about that part. So we didn't tell them."

No, the myth surrounding the city of tomorrow is not a bad myth. It's
not even an inaccurate one, as far as it goes. But it is incomplete. Like
the handkerchief that is repeatedly dropped onto a table in the old topological
math problem, its contact points with the real city of San Francisco are
limited and recurrent. The danger lies in believing that they describe the
true topography of the city. The danger lies in hearing the same answers
so often that we forget there are other questions.

--- Copyright Betsey Culp 1999

Wednesday, May 26, 1999

Mere slippage of the
tongue

On Saturday, Al Jolson came to town --- in the form
of a Jolson impersonator anyway. One hundred members of the Al Jolson Society
descended on the Marines Memorial Club to observe the 49th anniversary of
Jolson's death. This is where Jolson was scheduled to sing the night after
he died. The highlight of the evening occurred when a psychic attempted
to reach the spirit of Jolson. A connection was made, but the seance was
broken off when Jolson's ghost demanded half of the box office receipts.

* * *

I was playing with the TV dial and, on a small cable station, there was
a program identified as "News in Latin from Radio Finland." And
it was, indeed, the news in Latin. Just the audio. There's something poignant
about hearing the news in a dead language. I was hoping to hear how the
battle of Actium turned out. All this has possibilities: The Dead Language
Network. It might feature segments such as, "Aramaic for Singles,"
"A Senior's Guide to Old Norse," "An Introduction to Conversational
Goth."

Meanwhile, the networks are contemplating programming changes amid all
the incidents of school violence. ABC has shelved plans to air a made-for-TV
movie about students seizing control of a high school cafeteria until the
ingredients of the Salisbury steak are revealed. CBS has dumped an episode
of "Touched by an Angel" where Monica hocks her wings at a pawn
shop to buy ammunition for high school students who are willing to take
up arms against Satan.

The WB network is showing its sensitivity by dumping an episode of "Buffy,
the Vampire Slayer" until after high school graduations have passed.
The show depicts a mayor morphing into a serpent (and running for U.S. Senate?).
The more graphic scenes will be edited out --- and
sold to Hillary Clinton's "exploratory committee." Also, "America's
Most Wanted" is preparing a riveting season finale, titled "Has
Anyone Seen Elizabeth Dole?"

Which reminds me that years ago I used to write a faux advice column
for radio, performing it with Sedge Thomson on "West Coast Weekend."
Entitled "Ask Averill," it provided "advice for the lost,
the lovelorn, and for those incapable of forming a cohesive foreign policy."
One such bit might enable the star of that perennial rerun, "Danny
Boy Live," to avoid any political fallout over the current Chinese
espionage issue. (Sedge): Averill, a listener in Hillsborough wonders --- Does Dan Quayle have a chance to win the presidential
nomination and go on to the White House? He seems to know so much about
China. Averill (Bruce): Dear Hyperbolic in Hillsborough ---
Dan Quayle's knowledge of Asian affairs is above reproach. Why, just the
other day he took his kids out to pet the Dalai Lama.

* * *

In Florida, a lawsuit was filed against Dollar Rent-A-Car because the
company should have known a driver in a fatal accident was likely to be
drunk because he's from Ireland. After being deluged with phone calls, the
plaintiff's attorney apologized to the Irish people and deleted all references
in the suit to the sodden of the Old Sod. But you should know that the actual
item is that Myles O'Reilly is getting ready for this year's Bloomsday at
his O'Reilly's Irish Pub and Restaurant in North Beach. James Joyce's novel
"Ulysses" took place in one day --- June
16, 1904 --- as the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, maundered
about Dublin. Myles will feature a stable of actors reading from Joyce's
work and will linkup via the Web with Bob Joyce, the writer's grandson,
who'll be at the James Joyce Center in Dublin.

Trouble seems to be an occupational hazard for Celt wordsmiths: At the
Book Expo America in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, independent booksellers
took "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt to task for appearing
in a TV spot for Barnes & Noble. As Michele Caprario points out, it's
fruitless to wage war on authors when building solidarity among the writers
and the marketers would provide better resistance against the chains. Amazon.com
is now offering a 50 percent discount on all New York Times Best-Sellers,
and barnesandnoble.com and borders.com quickly emulated this policy. The
independents are outraged, though it seems there's nothing illegal about
this predatory practice. In response, independent bookstores might have
to put in salad bars or something.

The good news, Pat Holt reports, is that there's a little Oprah Winfrey
snobbery afoot. Some reading groups shun Oprah's recommended reading list
and consider her selections a little déclassé.

I still wistfully recall the old Book Plate here in the Marina, before
Waldenbooks moved in across the street. The owner of the combination cafe
and bookstore, Svain Arber, is a great character. I used to love his tirades:
"You goddam yuppies with your takeout coffee! Get the fuck out of here!"
And the terrified youngsters in their jogging shorts and their Styrofoam
cups would go running for their lives out the door.

* * *

And how about the news that cell phones and their electro-magnetic impulses
may be causing tumors in their users? We're already aware of their more
immediate threat.

Last month, a woman driving down Chestnut Street and holding a spirited
conversation on her cell phone, plowed into the back of a parked garbage
truck. At the All-Star Donut Shop, Golden Gate Disposal driver Alfonso Reynoso
described the collision. "Her car was smashed up so bad, they had to
tow it away. I'm glad my partner and I weren't in the truck at the time."

The woman was treated for acute humiliation and released. Other Marina
denizens chimed in with accounts of how people, driving with cell phones
glued to their ears, run stop signs, ignore red lights and occasionally
knock pedestrians down.

I once encountered a young couple tearing around the corner in their
obligatory four-wheel-drive sports utility vehicle (you need that heavy
equipment around here to negotiate the treachery of double-parked cars outside
the Gap). I had to jump back on the curb to avoid serious injury. I noticed
that he, in the driver's seat, was on a cell phone. On the passenger side,
she was also on a cell phone. I couldn't help but wonder: Were they talking
to each other?

* * *

Speaking of Marina-like conversations, I look forward to a debate between
Dan Quayle and George W. Bush. I imagine the exchange like this: Quayle:
"I knew George Bush. George Bush was a friend of mine. Sir, you are
no George Bush." Bush: "Yes, I am." Quayle: "Oh."

--- Copyright Bruce Bellingham 1999

Friday, May 28, 1999

Chip shots

I'm looking at the headlines in this week's "Circuits" section
of the New York Times. "The Omnipresent Chip Has Invaded Everything
From Dishwashers to Dogs." "Reaching Out to Really Chat, Even
With 10 Friends at a Time." "Coming Era of High-Speed Net Access
Is Here and Now on College Campuses." And so on.

Particularly for people whose back-door neighbors live in Silicon Valley,
this kind of news is hardly news at all. And even unfortunate folk residing
in other, less wired parts of the country comfortably engage in discussions
of megabytes and RAM. But just as Web-surfers rarely peer into the arcane
depths of their monitors, they also avoid looking at the processes --- and the people --- that manufacture
their electronic equipment. In the popular imagination, computers are magical
instruments, conceived by scientific Peter Pans and delivered fully formed
by storks sporting Microsoft logos.

Not so, according to a timely reminder by NYU professor Andrew Ross in
the spring issue of New Labor Forum. In fact, the technological revolution
of the 21st century is leaving the same kinds of muddy pawprints as the
industrial revolution of the 19th: unhealthy working conditions and environmental
pollution. The only difference is that a hundred years ago, we called them
sweatshops; today, they're "clean rooms." Activists drawn from
labor, religious and human rights groups have been stirring up students
to protest the pernicious if somewhat old-fashioned practices of companies
like Nike and The Gap. Perhaps because microelectronics comes equipped with
a utopian aura, its newer-fangled factories have generally remained impervious
to criticism.

And until recently, few Don Quixotes had emerged, willing to tilt at
these cyber-windmills. But the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, based in
San Jose, has been carefully monitoring the safety of semiconductor plants
in Northern California and --- working with affiliated
groups --- throughout the world. SVTC executive director
Ted Smith offers a quick take on the "dark side of high-tech development":

Environmental Destruction.

* Silicon Valley has more Superfund contamination sites than any other
area in the country, and more than 150 groundwater contamination sites.
A State Health Department study found a threefold increase in birth defects
in a neighborhood where leaking chemicals contaminated the water supply.

* High-tech plants discharge tons of toxic air pollutants from their
manufacturing processes.

* Semiconductor manufacturing uses more highly toxic gases than any
other industry.

* Semiconductor plants use huge amounts of water ---
millions of gallons per day.

* More than 700 compounds are used to make one computer workstation,
which is designed to become obsolete immediately. More than 12 million
computers --- amounting to more than 300,000 tons
of electronic junk --- are disposed of annually.

Workers Bear the Brunt.

* Hundreds of chemicals are used in electronics manufacturing, subjecting
the workers to a massive experiment in low-level exposure to multiple toxics.

* Semiconductor workers suffer from industrial illnesses at three times
the average for other manufacturing jobs.

* Three separate miscarriage studies (at DEC, IBM and an industry-wide
study sponsored by the Semiconductor Industry Association) all found significantly
increased miscarriage rates among women working in chemical-handling jobs.

* There are no unions in Silicon Valley high-tech companies, and the
industry has vigorously fought against efforts to bring union-scale wages
and working conditions into the industry.

* High-tech industry lobbyists have been leaders in efforts to undermine
the existing protections of labor laws.

Santa Clara County may be where it all started, but the homeys are rapidly
leaving their happy valley and heading out to populate the rest of the planet.
Electronics executives envision dozens of new semiconductor plants popping
up like toadstools, each costing between $1 billion and $3 billion. And
they'll go out into the world with official blessing: Silicon Valley has
occupied a special place in the heart of the present Democratic administration
ever since the 1993 campaign, when Clinton charted his economic course by
announcing that the region's industry "will move America forward to
a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and technological leadership."

Sensing a quick fix for pervasive economic problems, cities and states
have complacently allowed their traditional unionized, regulated industries
to disappear while eagerly concocting wonderful combinations of "strategic
incentives" to attract the new industrial superstars. To ride this
particular wave, it helps to paint your boogieboard with subsidies and relaxed
requirements. It helps, too, to proceed cautiously, because the wave of
high-tech business is likely to change course and flow elsewhere, to another
state or even another country, at the first sign of a logjam in its path.

I wonder if industrialists from the year 1899 would find our present-day
fascination with technological developments reminiscent of their own excitement
over the inventions of the horseless carriage and the incandescent lamp.
"Good luck," I can hear them say. "We tried to sidestep the
rules, too, but eventually the American people found us out."

In the case of Silicon Valley and its offspring, the honeymoon may be
far shorter than it was for Mellon and Carnegie because the mechanisms for
supervision are already in place. We've seen the damage that poor working
conditions and environmental irresponsibility can cause, and we know how
to organize to prevent it. Movements such as the Campaign for Responsible
Technology are already beginning to confront enthusiastic electronic expansion
by mobilizing community, environmental and labor organizations in countries
where it occurs. Children of the electronic age themselves, they're not
out to destroy but rather to reconfigure. As devoted to globalism as Intel
or Hewlett Packard is, they're insisting that high-tech companies take a
long-range, world-wide approach, setting work and health standards everywhere
to ensure an efficient labor force and a population of happy consumers.

Test new chemical substances, they say, as thoroughly as pharmaceuticals
are tested now. Watch out for workers in computer-chip shops as vigilantly
as garment sweatshops are watched now. Urge companies to redesign procedures
for greater safety and efficiency. Probe, publicize, pressure.

In other words, take high tech off its high perch and treat it like any
other industry.